


Valkyr

by Rokun



Category: Hello! Project, Morning Musume.
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, F/F, Gothic, Japanese Idols, Romance, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-03
Updated: 2014-05-03
Packaged: 2018-01-21 17:39:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1558616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rokun/pseuds/Rokun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Riho Sayashi unwillingly moves to a Japanese community in London, England, where she meets some interesting new friends but joins a neighborhood with mysterious secrets... Was Riho right to dread leaving her country and coming to the other side of the world to a strange and foreboding new place?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Valkyr

Riho Sayashi glanced out the window as she placed one of her favorite Kitty figurines on her bedside table. She was almost to the bottom of the box, but the view outside caught her eye and she stared pink-eyed at the trees spread out below her. A block or two away, the tops of a couple Victorian-style towers poked up from out of the trees.

When her parents told her they would be moving to England, she expected nothing but old buildings and a lack of modern conveniences. Thankfully that wasn’t quite the reality, although there certainly was a taste of it from those two towers. She wondered what would be in the building they guarded, but the only thing that came to mind was a castle. It seemed odd to her to find a castle here in Hartrigge of northwest London in what was a strong minority neighborhood of Japanese and Jews, but who was to say they didn’t have castles everywhere here. It was England, after all.

She yawned widely, and stuffed her fist into her mouth. It’s not like she wanted to come. She had a happy life back in Japan, and then her parents suddenly wanted to uproot and come to the other side of the world…

“Riho?” her father said from the doorway to her new room. She turned her head to glance at him before stifling another yawn. He smiled warmly. “I know you’re angry at me for moving us all the way over here, but once you settle in and make some new friends, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.”

“I’m not angry at you,” Riho growled, dropping herself onto her bed.

“So I can tell by your tone,” her father said with a half-smile, walking over to sit down next to her. “You can think of it as an adventure, you know. Once you make some friends you could walk around to all the old buildings and explore. Who knows what you might find!”

“I don’t want adventure,” Riho said, forlornly pulling out her phone again. It worked, but she had no service here. Her dad promised wi-fi “as soon as I can get someone here”, but she would also have to go somewhere and deal with some uppity British “bloke” she thought they called them to get her phone service activated. She stifled another yawn.

“What I think you want _and_ need now is sleep,” her father said, lifting the box she had been working on and putting it aside. After pulling her up to her feet, he pulled the covers down her bed. “We’ve all had an incredibly long day, and we’ll be taking you to introduce you to the headmaster of your new school tomorrow.”

“But my room isn’t se-” She cut off with another yawn.

“Go on,” her father said, still smiling, and helped her into the bed.

“Maybe I could sleep after all,” Riho mumbled, the softness suddenly feeling quite inviting. “I do like sleep…”

“I know,” her father replied, tucking her in. “The ten hours you had on the plane surely wasn’t enough for you.”

“No it wasn…” Riho began, but she lost the rest of the thought as her mind quickly drifted off into sleep.

…

“Riho! It’s time to get up for your visit with the headmaster!”

Riho groaned, sitting up slowly in her bed and lifting a hand to her head, which was throbbing. After a moment there was a quick knock at her door and her mother appeared. “Wake up sleepyhead!”

“What are you talking about?” Riho asked. “I Just went to bed…”

Her mother smiled, coming over to set a cup of coffee and a biscuit by her lamp. “Have a quick breakfast and let’s go dear,” she said, patting Riho on the head.

That was weird. She swore she had just fallen asleep…

Sighing, she grudgingly took the coffee and biscuit, which had a decidedly “British” taste to it… at least as far as she was concerned. Then before long, almost the next thing she knew, she was being loaded into their new car.

After leaving the driveway and riding down a sloped street, they made a right. She saw high hedges beside the street surrounding an ornate black gate that just screamed Victorian to her. She knew it was Victorian because she had studied up on it before coming. Know your enemy, is what she always said. Beyond the gate was the biggest “house” she had ever seen, and she realized it was the “castle” from last night when she noticed the towers looming above. Thick vegetation surrounded the path from the gate, and where she expected the door to be she glimpsed only a tapestry of ivy before they passed by. Her father then made a sharp left turn almost as if to go around the mansion, and she saw only trees and hedges protecting what must be the back of the property before forgetting about it and returning to moping about her lack of sleep.

“This is the way you’ll be walking to the station every day to get to school,” her father said as she glared out the window. They passed hedges upon hedges, and all manner of manors of varying sizes… though each one of them bigger than anything she’d seen in Japan. Nothing was the size of the castle on the corner though.

“Maybe you can make some friends from here along your way to school,” her mother said hopefully, gazing almost enviously at the mansions as well as they passed by. “You could go over for tea. Though of course I wouldn’t let you go into a place like that alone…”

“Dear…” her father said, reaching over to pat her on the leg.

Her mother blinked. “What? Oh… I’m sorry,” she said, with a quick glance back at Riho, whose sullenness didn’t change.

…

The visit with the headmaster was about as Riho expected. It was a Japanese International School, or _The_ Japanese School, she didn’t really pay attention, and the headmaster and most of the teachers were Japanese. The headmaster wasn’t too bad aside from some British stuffiness he must have picked up in addition to the normal Japanese schoolmaster stuffiness, but the fact that the school was in another building which looked to be centuries old didn’t really comfort her as much as it could have.

She got her classes, which were pretty much the same as her old school except that she suspected she might actually learn some English from a British teacher who had apparently graduated from Cambridge, and she found out what time she was due to begin her British schoolgirl career tomorrow. Her mom learned what she needed for her uniform, which at least didn’t sound all that much different from her beloved seifuku.

The rest of the day back home she spent unpacking, and napping, and unpacking, and eating, then napping again before going to bed early for her early morning tomorrow when she’d have to figure out the train system. It didn’t sound too bad since she only had one transfer on the same line, but she liked being on top of these things.

After falling asleep satisfied at the fully unpacked state of her room, she had another dreamless sleep before being awoken by her mother in the morning with this time juice and a scone. She had never had a scone before, but supposed there were worse things.

Despite the dreamless sleep she felt fairly rested after all her naps the day before, and walked out into the brisk autumn air to head down the hill toward the castle. At least it wasn’t raining. She’d heard it rained all the time in England, but hoped her friend was lying to her. That friend had never been to England, after all.

Her mind wandered off to one of her favorite songs from back home as she passed the gates of the castle and curved around it as she’d done in the car the day before, and her gait had a bit of a bounce to it as she made her way down the long road past the innumerable mansions to the station.

However, about halfway down the road she began to get a weird feeling like someone was watching her. She glanced around but saw nothing but hedges and trees and dark windows within stone walls. Unconsciously her steps became quicker, but she made herself slow back down determined not to show that she was scared. Cars were humming down the road past her after all, and there were a few people walking up and down the sidewalks as well.

Set in her determination not to walk too fast, she didn’t realize that she’d begun walking faster and faster, looking nervously at the imposing buildings around her, until she was almost at a run and then… _*smack!*_ she collapsed with a yelp in a tangle of arms and legs.

Frantic, she pulled herself together and jumped to her feet, taking a defensive stance before seeing the crumpled form of a girl who couldn’t be much older than her moaning and pushing herself up from the pavement, her handbag lying nearly an arm’s length away where she must have flung it in distress.

“Oh my god!” Riho exclaimed in her imperfect English. “I… I am so sorry!”

“Nn… don’t worry about it,” the girl said in perfect Japanese, rising up and dusting off her coat. The fabric of the girl’s coat had a sheen Riho wasn’t familiar with, but it looked softer than any material she’d ever seen. She quickly resisted the urge to reach out and touch it, and instead leapt to pick up the girl’s bag.

However, when she was about to offer it back to the girl, she stared at the bag. “Is… is this a Carolyn crocodile bag?” she asked, loosening her hold on the back as if holding something precious…. which it’s very possible she was.

“Yes,” the girl replied, reaching out to nonchalantly take the strap. Riho nearly gasped. “I like the purple color.”

Riho’s eyes traveled up to the girl’s face for the first time, and she noticed that the other was indeed also Japanese, with a delicate voice and delicate features. Pair them with the coat and the bag and she almost looked like… “Are you a princess?”

The girl’s eyes widened, and after a moment her lips turned up in a giggle. “Goodness no,” she replied. “I live just up the road there.” She pointed back up the street where Riho had come. “Does that look like a palace to you?”

“Might almost as well be,” Riho mumbled. “I’ve never seen anything like these houses before.”

The girl studied her. “Well if you’re walking here then you must be from somewhere nearby too, right?”

“Just… just up on Windmill Hill.”

“Quite good enough,” the girl said, waving a hand dismissively. “Are you headed down to the station?”

“Yes, ma’a… I mean, yes,” Riho replied, blushing.

“Here, we shall walk together,” the girl said, and to Riho’s horror she linked her arm with Riho’s and began pulling her in a march back down the road.

“What’s your terminal station?” the girl asked.

“Um…” Riho pulled out her phone. “It looks like I transfer at Willesden to… Acton?”

The girl glanced at her curiously. “Oh, you have a cell phone! I want one so badly but Daddy thinks if he gave me one it’d only lead to trouble and me hanging out with a bad crowd... Are you going to the Japanese School?”

“...Yes.”

“Oh, yay!” the girl burst out, positively beaming. “That’s where I go to school too! How long have you been going??? Oh wait, you must be new since you weren’t sure about the stations… What grade are you in? Who are your teachers? I’m finally going to have a friend who lives nearby!!!”

Riho’s eyes widened at each question fired, and when the girl had finished speaking she didn’t know what to answer first. “Um… I’ll be in fourth year. I don’t really know any of my teachers yet…” A friend who lives nearby? She didn’t even know this girl’s name yet! Besides, no girl with accessories like that would ever want to be her friend.

“Oh that’s too bad,” the girl said, sounding disappointed. “I’m in fifth year. Well, that doesn’t mean we can’t still be friends! We can have lunch together, and I can bring you along to after-school activities!”

“Um… excuse me,” Riho said, pulling the girl to a stop. “I’m sorry to be rude, but I don’t know anything about you except that your handbag costs about ten times more than my whole wardrobe, or at least what I was able to bring to London.” She didn’t know how to continue without being ex _tremely_ rude, but at the rate this was going the girl would ask to marry her by the end of the day! Though she had to admit, she could apparently do worse…

“Oh! I’m so sorry! I didn’t introduce myself! My name is Mizuki Fukumura, and I live about halfway back up the road… or well, you already know that. Also, don’t worry about my things. Daddy just likes to spoil me. If you live on Windmill Hill that’s a much better neighborhood than where Eripon…” Suddenly she cut off and glanced down at what appeared to be a diamond-encrusted watch around her wrist. “Oh dear, we’ll miss the train! We’d better hurry!” And she grabbed Riho by the arm, pulling her quickly into a run back down the hill, velvet coat flapping in the breeze.

“By the way!” Riho cried out after catching her breath. “I’m Riho Sayashi! Pleased to meet you!”

As the two running girls disappeared around the bend, a lightly cloaked and hooded figure stepped out from a gate between high hedges and gazed after them. A low sigh emanated from within the hood as a limousine slowly pulled up along the curb. A driver came out to nod his head in greeting and open the door, but before ducking in the opening of the hood turned back down the street.

“...So the girl is new to the neighborhood, and seems full of spirit. Perhaps, at last, we shall learn the truth.” Then, after turning the other way for a last glance up the hill at Victorian towers rising above the trees, the cloaked figure disappeared into the car.


End file.
